Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiographic imaging apparatus and an imaging system.
Description of the Related Art
There have been known radiographic imaging apparatuses that include a scintillator layer for converting radiation into light and a sensor panel with an arrangement of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements for detecting the light converted from radiation in the scintillator layer. A method of forming a scintillator layer by filling the space between partition walls with scintillator particles is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-202373. This method is superior in that the scintillator layer formed by filling the space between partition walls with scintillator particles yields a picked up image high in sharpness.
Improving the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) in a radiographic imaging apparatus usually requires forming the scintillator layer thick. When the scintillator layer is formed to have a certain thickness or more, light emitted on the radiation incident side is absorbed and scattered by the scintillator in the process of reaching the sensor panel side, thereby attenuating the amount of light. The resultant problem is a reduction in the amount of light entering the photoelectric conversion elements and in the sharpness of a picked up image, which means that DQE is not improved sufficiently.